Battle Creek, MI: Kellogg and Post Cereal Plants

Kellogg: (Satellite)

Post: (Satellite)

Viral Media posted two photos with the comment:

Kellogg Plant No.2

A photograph of the original factory at the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Co. in about 1910. W.K. Kellogg founded the company in 1906. The company used a process developed at the Battle Creek Sanitarium of soaking grain and then rolling and baking it to provide a thin, toasted flake that was marketed as a health alternative breakfast food. The Kellogg brothers, Will Keith and John Harvey, were Seventh-day Adventists from Battle Creek, Michigan.

Postcards – Willard Library, Battle Creek, MI

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Street View, Nov 2020

mibluemag
"Tour guides told the story of the Kellogg brothers. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was the chief medical officer of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in the late 1880s. His brother, Will Keith Kellogg, worked alongside him. The brothers discovered, quite by accident, a process for making cereal flakes. In 1894, the brothers were unexpectantly called away while cooking wheat. When they returned, the wheat was overcooked. The brothers then forced the grains through rollers, flattening the wheat into thin flakes, and the first convenient breakfast cereal was born."
"In the first five years of the 1900s, Battle Creek was in the grip of a “cereal boom.” There were more than 40 companies manufacturing cereal products made from corn, wheat or oats. Kellogg became the most widely known and successful among these enterprises and still is headquartered in Battle Creek."

Viral Media posted three images with the comment:

Cereal City Memories

Postcards from early in the growth of Kellogg’s circa 1920. This cereal industry at this time received the grain raw materials and shipped finished goods by rail. The factory was located in between the mainline for Michigan Central and the Grand Trunk Western.

W. K. Kellogg launched the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company on February 19, 1906. W.K. convinced his brother Dr. Kellogg to relinquish rights to the product. Thus the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1909 was born. The current name of the Kellogg Company was adapted in 1922. 

If you visit Battle Creek you can see the field where they demolished the factory. So much for historic preservation.

Photos - Willard Library, Battle Creek

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Kellogg's has manufacturing facilities in many countries, including:

• North America: Battle Creek, Michigan; Memphis, Tennessee; Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; London, Ontario; San Jose, California; New Haven, Connecticut; West Haven, Connecticut; Atlanta, Georgia; Mattoon, Illinois; Pikeville, Kentucky; Blue Anchor, New Jersey; West Seneca, New York 
• Europe: Bremen, Germany; Manchester, Great Britain; Wrexham, Great Britain 
• South Africa: Springs, South Africa 
• Turkey: Pendik, Istanbul 

[Google search results]

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Post Consumers Brands

I learned about the Post plant from some photos of the plant being switched near the Nichols Tower.

Street View, Aug 2019